Starmer: If the PM achieves what she wants she will fall short of hard Brexit

Keir Starmer claimed a partial victory for Labour in the aftermath of Theresa May’s big reveal on Brexit when he said the government had “accepted” many of the Opposition’s proposals and was heading away from a “hard Brexit”.

The barrister-turned-politician told MPs that is May achieves her objectives then she will “fall far short of the hard Brexit that many businesses and trade unions have feared”.

Starmer, shadow Brexit Secretary, delivered a robust response to the statement by David Davis, his Tory opposite number.

He said May’s intervention was the most important speech of her life but indicated Labour’s future strategy when he suggested the party had won concessions from government.

“For many months Labour has been demanding the fullest possible access to the single market, emphasising the risks of leaving the customs union, arguing for a collaborative relationship with our EU partners, and emphasising the need for transitional arrangements and to entrench workers’ rights,” he told the Commons yesterday.

“The prime minister has rightly accepted those in her plan, and I acknowledge that, but she has given little detail about how that is to be achieved, and there are some unanswered questions and big gaps. In truth, it is a half-in, half-out plan.”

The run-in to May’s speech had been characterised by Downing Street aides indicating she would point to a “hard Brexit” but, despite using tough language yesterday, the prime minister repeatedly described her approach as “economically rational”. The value of sterling rose against the dollar when she sat down yesterday lunchtime.

Starmer said May had “ruled out” a hard Brexit but warned her plan to take Britain out of the single market – the world’s largest trading bloc – was a risky one.

“If the prime minister achieves all that she has set out to achieve, she will fall far short of the hard Brexit that many businesses and trade unions have feared—the Brexit of no deal, a bare trade agreement, out of any customs union and at arm’s length from our EU relations,” he said.

“It is good that she has ruled out that hard Brexit at this stage. However, as she knows, setting out ambitions is the easy bit; delivery is much more difficult. She is taking the precarious course of taking the UK out of single market membership and changing the customs arrangements. That will cause concern to businesses, as the secretary of state knows, and trade unions. The prime minister should have been more ambitious.”